La Plaza Hotel Tainan

... to the mountain they had Santa and 2 of his reindeer that you could take pictures with. After we had had all the salt that we could take we began making our way back towards Tainan. On the way we stopped at one last temple. It was huge and it turns out that it is one of the largest temples in the world. Once you see one temple they all start to look the same but it was good to see how big this one was. It was also right next to an abandoned water ...

... afterwards, but instead the uploading of the photos took so long I didnt get the chance until now to write. But I knew I was going to miss the room and the hotel and the luxury and ended up spending about 45 minutes sitting by the window staring at the traffic outside. I was amazed that even past midnight there were still so many cars and buses driving around and in the time I was watching the roundabout, I think only for a brief moment were there no cars in it. <br>

... and tried some milk fish soup (a Tainan delicacy). After a lunch of oyster omelet and dried mangoes, we visited Anping's Merchant House/Tree House. <br><br>The Tree House was especially interesting because a Banyan tree had completely overgrown and replaced one of the wall of the structure. The remaining rooms had been decorated with modern furniture which subscribed to Asian contemporary aesthetics. It was the closest thing to a Museum I have been to since Nairobi.<br><br>The ...

... springs out of all of them was the "icy" springs. This spring was needless to say extremely cold in temperature and not many people were in it. It was weird though after you submerged your body in the springs water and got over freezing your body actually begin to feel warm, I stayed in this one for a while. The were also springs that had medicine in them for things like backache, skin problems, headaches, etc. Once you arrive at the springs you have to take a shower to ...

... with shaved peanuts and a sauce,and all other kinds of different foods and plenty of fresh fruit. We sampled a lot of stuff so its hard to remember, but I did try to take lots of pictures of the foods they were selling. At the night market on Thursday I had a little old Asian man, who had to be in his late 80's following me around the market. He spoke and said "Ni Hao" which is hello in Chinese, and smiled really big. So of course I spoke back and from that point on the ...

... and showed us around a little. The first two days we stayed at the guest house on the campus , which is next door to the university presidents home. Oh yeah when I say "we" I am referring to the other graduate student with me, Sara. The guest house was a nice accommodation. We went to eat a Korean style restaurant for lunch the other day and had "hot pots" which were very tasty. I think its going to take some time for me to get ...

... Most everyone took advantage of the down time to catch up on some much needed rest. Dr Wu is a master of sleeping anytime, anywhere. He would have to be, because by his own admittance, he doesn't sleep much at night. He is a very driven man. So, I couldn't resist having Shuying snap a photo of Dr Wu power napping in the front seat on our way home. We arrived outside our hotel about 6pm. None of us were hungry for one of Dr Wu's big meals, so we asked if he would mind if we ...

... ein paar Haueser weiter ist ein Sternerestaurant mit nobler Kueche und modernster Einrichtung. Und ein BMW mit reichem Manager ueberholt einen Opi auf rostigem Fahrrad und man weiss genau, dass diese zwei Leute noch Welten trennen - direct nebeneinander. Ich habe aber das Gefuehl, dass hier kaum jemand dem anderen neidet, was dieser hat, sondern jeder versucht so das beste aus seinem eigenen Leben zu machen. Taiwan ist also in ...

... offen" fuer eine Frage, die man davor stellt. Auch glauben sie an Handlesen und dergleichen. Das Essen - sowiso fundamental wichtig hier - ist auch ganz oft mit Symbolgehalt belegt, wie z.B. die Ananas, die fuer Erfolg steht und deshalb bei Firmeneroeffnung und der gleichen verschenkt wird. Nicht zuletzt waeren da noch die Tierkreiszeichen (chinesisch), die Sternzeichen und sogar die Blutgruppe. Das waren auch eine der ersten Fragen, die mir gestellt wurden, wenn ich jemanden ...

... Weihnachten. Aus der Heimat kam ein Adventskalender mit Bildern, so dass ich traditionellerweise den Weihnachtscountdown zelebrieren konnte und jeden morgen den Tag mit einem netten Motiv starten konnte. Und als es dann an Heiligabend endlich soweit war haben wir FSJler uns erstmal ganz gemeutlich in eine nette Bar gesetzt J Ich wollte natuerlich nicht mit leeren Haenden dastehen und so hat jeder von mir eine kleine deutsche Schleckerei bekommen, Babybell und ...